Nico interviewed Liv Kristine, the charismatic and Valkyrie-like frontwoman of Leaves’ Eyes in Sheffield on their UK tour, in support of the new album King of Kings.

Nico: Hi Liv, how are you?

Liv: Very good, how are you?

N: I’m great, thanks.

L: Good to see you again.

N: Good to see you too. How has the tour gone so far?

L: Really really well. We’re on the UK leg of the tour now and we have one third of the tour still to play. That’s going to be for the UK only. The first leg was for the rest of Europe which was really nice too. Paris: awesome, Belgium: awesome. But the UK is always something special, we have a very big and strong fan base here. We have fans and friends who follow us for every gig and that’s a privilege. I see that the market for our kind of music is growing here, and that’s maybe not the case in Germany. So it’s very good to be back, we’ve already played three gigs and it has been absolutely fantastic.

N: You’ve released a new album recently: King of Kings – which you’ve based on Harald Fairhair. Obviously Scandinavian history, old Norse history in general, is full of fascinating characters like Eirik Bloodaxe.

L: That’s one of Harald’s sons. You’ll find him in the first or second bonus track, it’s called Trail of Blood. That’s a song about him. So who knows what the next Leaves’ Eyes album is going to be about. We know that Harald had many sons and daughters.

N: There are so many other characters like Erik the Red or Leif Erikson. What is it about Harald Fairhair that stood out from the rest of all these great characters and infamous villains? What made you want to do an album based on his life and his legacy?

L: Because I grew up with the legacy of Harald Fairhair. The decisive battle that made him become the king of Norway took place in a fjord called Hafrsfjord, which is my birthplace. So Harald Fairhair has always been there. I’ve always been interested in history and it happened exactly two years ago, over a morning cup of coffee that Alex came up with this idea: what about king of kings? I started digging through all my books and I contacted my mother in Norway to collect stuff at museums and libraries. So it has been amazing to study Harald Fairhair’s life and to divide it into twelve chapters. Parallel to my studies, Alex and Thorsten composed songs at the studio. We’ve been very busy, it has been a very intense process but highly creative. We had so much fun and it means a lot to me to have this album released. It’s definitely a milestone in the career of Leaves’ Eyes. And as I said, it happened at my birthplace so.

N: I highly praised the album for Valkyrian Music..

L: Thank you very much! I read it, of course.

N:Good! Obviously it’s brilliant to see that you guys got back to how you originally started with tales of Viking warriors, going forth into battle, exploring lands and so on. How would you say that King of Kings compares to the rest of the Leaves’ Eyes discography?

L: I’d say King of Kings has a connection to The Vinland Saga, which was thematically about Leif Erikson and his discovery of America. So if there is a link to any other album, I’d say The Vinland Saga. You already mentioned the folky instruments and the folky touch and the orchestra and everything so it has been there all the time but every album has been different. Now King of Kings happened, it was great to see how everything came together. We worked on every song as if it were one individual piece of music. We added any instrument from London Voices to White Russian Orchestra, cello, flutes…everything. We worked on every song until all three of us, Thorsten, Alex and I being perfectionists, said okay let’s go for the mix, its fine.

N: On this album you added Simone Simons from Epica and Lindy-Fay Hella from Wardruna. What was it like working with those two women on the two tracks that they featured on?

L: Absolutely amazing. Of course I know of the series Vikings and I just thought the music is amazing, the soundtrack is amazing! Who is that girl singing? I found out she’s from Bergen! Through a common friend of mine and of Wardruna, I got Lindy-Fay‘s contacts. I contacted her and she said “of course, I know you and I would really like to work with you”. So I sent her Blazing Waters and we were blown away. A couple of weeks later I flew to Bergen and met Lindy-Fay. I presented her Blazing Waters and she loved it, it was definitely golden. She’s a lovely girl and a great musician.

Simone lives one hour away from us so it was about time to invite her to come to our studio. She’s been at our place before but it has been quite a while. She’s a mother now so she’s busy, but she came by and she listened to the song and…I’d say we are a perfect match. Lovely, lovely to work with her.

N: Obviously Epica and Leaves’ Eyes, despite falling into the symphonic metal genre, have got two completely distinct styles. Do you think there will be any sort of crossover between from the recent collaboration between you and Simone?

L: I don’t know. I have no clue, we’ll see. I love Simone and her work, she’s a lovely girl and we are both mothers… We live one hour away from each other so who knows. I’d love to further cooperate with Simone. It would be great.

N: Going back to Harald Fairhair. You obviously studied his saga, his life story quite extensively for the album. What would you say is the most fascinating aspect about the man?

L: We got a few facts about Harald through Snorri, but Snorri came about a couple of hundred years later. Next to that we got the sagas and the tales of the Norwegian kings, where you can find a lot of interesting written words about them to honor them. I think it is absolutely amazing to read the different approaches to his person, because he must have been exactly as unruly, wild like his son Eirik Bloodaxe. He must have been exactly like that himself. In many of the tales or poems about Harald it is told that he was beautiful and that he could have had any woman: he was very glorious. It’s fascinating to read other stories like the battle of Hafrsfjord; about blood being everywhere and the fjord burning or different sceneries, a different Harald.

N: He certainly sounds like an interesting figure. As a fan of both Vikings and Game of Thrones, which one do you prefer?

L: Vikings. Last time it would have been Game of Thrones but it’s Vikings now because of the music. Of course because of my friend Lindy-Fay who’s in there. Although it’s made in Hollywood, I think it’s very nice. It’s very nice to watch those great actors. I love it. And also because I’m Norwegian.

N: That’s very good. Thank you for your time. Have a lovely show tonight.

Still promoting their latest album “Deceiver Of The Gods” (released in June 2013 via Metal Blade Records), Swedish Vikings Amon Amarth will raid the UK, France and the Iberian Peninsula between January and February, supported by Huntress and Savage Messiah. Their own words are as follows:

“UK, Portugal, Spain and France…get ready this January for a Viking invasion! We’ll be making an extensive UK expedition where we’ll be pillaging smaller clubs in virtually every nook and cranny of the country. We’re also making a more in depth raid of France, Spain and Portugal. Finally! As support on this mission we’re bringing our friends in Huntress and up-and-comers Savage Messiah. Don’t miss this awesome night of metal and we will take no prisoners!”

Last autumn, Amon Amarth launched a video for the title-track of “Deceiver Of The Gods”, which is believed to be the most remarkable video of the band so far, as it features clips from the upcoming film “Northmen – A Viking Saga” – a movie where Johan Hegg himself stars as Valli.

The third edition of the annual Warhorns Festival has been announced. Unlike the previous two years, Warhorns 2014 will take place in Selby, near York, at The Riverside on Saturday 20th September. Announced so far for the festival are York’s mercenary metallers Sellsword as well as Nottingham pirate metallers Red Rum and Hullian black metal outfit Aloeswood. Other bands are to be announced including the headliner and ticket information will be available in the near future.

Swedish Vikings King Of Asgard have recently released the new single “The Runes Og Hel” in advance of their third upcoming album “Karg”. The release date for the latter is set for 18th July, via Metal Blade Records. This will be its track list:

Recorded once again by Andy LaRocque at Sonic Train Studios, bassist Jonas Albrektsson and singer/guitarist Karl Beckman state: » After well over a year of intensive writing, we finally reached the point where everything is put into finish. When countless hours of hard work and careful consideration has been completed. This completion, being our third album which at an early stage was titled to “Karg”, in English, “Barren”. A word which later on came to form the atmosphere of the whole album and a sense that meanders through more or less all the material. It’s darker, it is harsher and more stripped down than our previous releases. More mature, precise and well thought out. A challenge both for us as well as for the observer. Lyrically, we have come closer to our own immediate surrounding and ancestral heritage, based on old legends and tales from our home region, a tribute to our fair and historical countryside. Yet again everything was recorded and mixed in Sonic Train Studios with Andy LaRocque at the helm assisted by Olof Berggren. Even in the phase of recording we used the word Karg as a guideline… and thus, it is upon thee! «

Check the band’s profile at the label’s website (www.metalblade.com/kingofasgard) to stream the aforementioned single “The Runes Of Hel” and see the pre-order options.

Faroese Jarls of Viking metal Týr have unveiled the video for The Lay Of Our Love, which features Liv Kristine of Leaves’ Eyes. The song is taken from Týr’s latest musical edda Valkyrja, which was released via Metal Blade Records and is the band’s follow-up to their 2011 release The Lay Of Thrym. The clip was produced by Stanimir Lukic, directed by Ivan Colic, and can be seen below.

Norwegian-Germanic symphonic folk metallers Leaves’ Eyes, who are fronted by Liv Kristine, are hitting the UK later this month for a tour with Atrocity and Pythia, in support of their latest – and darkest – masterpiece Symphonies of the Night.

Following the recent closure of Bogiez in Cardiff, Leaves’ Eyes will now be playing The Globe, Cardiff on 15th January. Further information can be found here. Full UK tour dates are as follow:

King Of Asgard will return to Sonic Train Studio in March this year, having outlived and conquered the three winters of Fi’mbulvintr as well as paying tribute to to their ancestors and their proud past with …To North.

Now, for the third time around, King Of Asgard return to Andy LaRocque‘s Sonic Train Studios to carve the runes of the forthcoming, yet untitled album. In this very moment the last touches are being done on the songs and focus is set to surpass the two former releases which is substantially already met.

The third album is regarded by the band as a new chapter in their career. Frontman Karl Beckman comments:

The epic/melodic song writing of the first two albums is enhanced with monophonic warlike hymns and fierce riffage that hint on the various band members past projects. Somewhat darker in its approach, creating atmospheres not alien to King of Asgard, but still something not heard on the previous two albums. All the King of Asgard-significative elements are represented yet carrying a somewhat new execution.